It may have something to do with the fact that with the velours your ears are further from the driver. Some report that you get better bass when you lift the driver from your ears to create a bigger distance.

What about the instrument separation? Not sure if my ears are playing tricks on me but I get the feeling that wih velour I can hear individual instruments with better clarity, while the jergpad seems to give priority to vocals so background instruments seems slightly pushed back.

None of these are criticism of the mod, it's just a different tonality which some would prefer. Im still on the fence though. Im with you 100% about designing the perfect earpad. There's much more performance to be extracted from pad-fi, this mod proves it, we just need the perfect compromise if that's even possible.

Oh the decreased separation is because the pleather dust screen attenuates down a lot of treble, so background detail is not "over"-represented. Relatively it would sound like it has less separation than velours, but really it is just more subtle separation. I know because I have 2 sets of identical jergpads made right now, and one has pleather dust screen while the other has velour dust screen, and what you described is apparent between the two.

Oh the decreased separation is because the pleather dust screen attenuates down a lot of treble, so background detail is not "over"-represented. Relatively it would sound like it has less separation than velours, but really it is just more subtle separation. I know because I have 2 sets of identical jergpads made right now, and one has pleather dust screen while the other has velour dust screen, and what you described is apparent between the two.

Right I didn't think of that. So that's the reason why velours seem brighter than that jergpads. If only I had the hindsight to try a thinner dust screen before I glued these ones on.

Right I didn't think of that. So that's the reason why velours seem brighter than that jergpads. If only I had the hindsight to try a thinner dust screen before I glued these ones on.

I dunno, it's a bit of a trade-off. With more treble, vocals become a bit clearer but also brighter due to treble emphasis, not as smooth-sounding as the thicker pleather dust screen.

Believe it or not, I prefer the sound of the pleather dust screen by a LOT, compared to velour screen or no fabric at all. It's like a hardware EQ that just makes everything sound so natural in tonality. Sure a bit of "perceived separation" is lost, but that is a very acceptable trade for the correct timbre, to me at least. YMMV.

I pondered this statement once, but realized I cannot be a happy poor guy. Money doesn't buy happiness in the strictest sense, but it alleviates all those stressful things which get in the way of being happy.

Absolutely terrible. Mids sound a bit less wonky and more transparent, but the overall sound is extremely fast almost to the point of being fatiguing. Actually the default velours sound worse so I withdraw that evaluation; it is relatively an improvement but on absolute terms nowhere near the balance achieved by jergmodded pleathers.